‘It’s amazing what a contract can do’: Seattle Police Officers Guild president touts SPD retention

The City of Seattle has worked to get Seattle Police Department (SPD) recruitment numbers back up, incentivizing a starting salary of $103,000 and a signing bonus of $7,500 for new officers.

SPD currently has 1,200 sworn officers and 631 civilian employees, according to the city’s website. That’s up from only having 424 active officers, the lowest staffing levels since at least 1957, in April 2024.

“Numbers are up. It’s a good thing. It’s amazing what a contract can do,” Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) President Mike Solan told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio Wednesday.

Earlier this month, the City of Seattle reached a new collective bargaining agreement with the SPOG, which represents all Seattle police officers.

Under the agreement, police officers will receive a retroactive pay increase of 6% for 2024 and 4.1% for 2025. Officers will get an additional 2.7% increase in 2026, and the 2027 increase will range from 3% to 4%, depending on the Consumer Price Index.

Solan told KIRO host John Curley the two typically go without a contract for around three years, but this time it was over 12 years before a deal was made.

“To me, it’s unacceptable. But I credit the Harrell administration for recognizing that we’re in a public safety quagmire, as I usually refer to it, and they thought outside the box, and they got serious at the table. And we did as well, our contract team, and we put a deal together that I think the constituents across the city will want to have more cops,” he said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above. 

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